Mexico’s murder rate hit a record last year, and homicides continue to climb so far this year
The National Statistics Institute said there were 35,964 murders last year, a 12% increase from 2017. The murder rate rose to 29 per 100,000 inhabitants from 26 the previous year. By comparison, the U.S. murder rate was 5.3 per 100,000 residents for 2017, the latest available data.
The states with the most homicides in 2018 were Guanajuato, where gangs have been fighting over fuel-theft rackets, and Mexico state, which includes densely populated crime-ridden suburbs of Mexico City. Jalisco, home to the country’s largest drug cartel, and the northern border states of Chihuahua and Baja California were also among the most violent. The number of murders fell in southern Guerrero state, one of the country’s poorest and the site of conflicts over the heroin trade.
Since Mexico only solves a fraction of murders, the low likelihood of being caught is a problem that grows worse when the overall number of homicides rises, since authorities’ capacity to solve them stays the same, said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former member of Mexico’s intelligence services.
Homicides have continued rising in 2019, and are up around 5% in the first six months of the year, according to police reports compiled by the government. The monthly tally by police tends to be slightly lower than those eventually compiled by the statistics institute.
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